PHT’s Morning Skate takes a look around the world of hockey to see what’s happening and what we’ll be talking about around the NHL world and beyond.

“Trailer Park Boys” is probably a little niche for some, but it’s not a stretch to say that the Canadian program has a lot of overlap with hockey players and fans. Nathan MacKinnon showed as much, as his impersonation of the character Bubbles borders on nightmare fuel. Check this out from his Instagram account:

Calgary Flames head coach Bob Hartley is in the final season of his contract, but GM Brad Treliving doesn’t want to let him go. The two have been discussing an extension, per the Calgary Sun.

“I want to keep this a non-issue but obviously I’ve been nothing but impressed with Bob,” Treliving said.

“For both of us, we had to get to know each other. We’ve done that and we are doing that, and I can’t say enough about the good things Bob has done here. I couldn’t have envisioned it going any better. I’m thoroughly impressed with him as a person and with the job he’s done.”

Hartley began his tenure with the Flames in the shortened 2013 campaign, which was also the team’s final season with Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff. Hartley has guided the Flames through a rebuilding process and so far this season they’ve been surprisingly effective with a 10-6-2 record.

Calgary is the third team he’s served as the bench boss for after Colorado and Atlanta. He has a 393-297-61-47 record and won a championship with the Avalanche in 2001.

The 21-year-old seemed to land in quite a few trade rumors over the years, including seemingly being involved in the Jarome Iginla swap that didn’t happen.

He’s certainly been making a case for a look with the big club, at least if his numbers with the AHL’s Providence Bruins are any indication. The 40th pick of the 2011 NHL Draft has five goals and 11 points in 12 AHL games so far this season. He was productive in 2013-14 as well, scoring 57 points in 65 regular season games and 14 points in 12 AHL playoff games.

It’s easy to see why the Bruins are frustrated with last night’s poor performance, yet they brought a five-game winning streak into Wednesday’s meltdown. They can prove that loss to the Maple Leafs was a mere hiccup by beating the hated Habs, and perhaps Khokhlachev could even contribute to that cause.

Here’s one guess regarding how he might fit in:

I'd guess that Khokhlachev plays with Griffith and Lucic, which puts Kelly back with Soderberg and Eriksson.

Sometimes that process involves tweaking line combinations, and in this latest instance, the most interesting change drops Nathan MacKinnon out of Colorado’s top two trios. Dater reports that John Mitchell will take MacKinnon’s spot between Gabriel Landeskog and Jarome Iginla while Alex Tanguay will play right wing with Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly. MacKinnon, meanwhile, will center a line with Jamie McGinn and Daniel Briere (replacing Dennis Everberg in the lineup).

Increasing depth?

On face value, moving the rising 19-year-old off the top two lines seems like a clear case of lost patience, but there are some reasons to defend the decision.

For one thing, MacKinnon’s offense dried up recently; the sophomore only has an assist in four games after a mini-burst in which he collected six points in three games from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2.

Beyond that, when you look at Colorado’s top three combinations under this amalgamation, it could conceivably be a varied attack. Much of that would depend upon Mitchell playing at the level of a second-line center, though, of course.

Sending a message

Lines change a lot in the modern NHL, so maybe this sends a message more than anything else.

While Roy’s patience seems like a breath of fresh air, his ultimate pleading remains the same: work harder.

“We’ve got to realize that it doesn’t have to be a perfect goal to count,” Roy said. “It can go off your butt, or your leg or your arm. Maybe if we can get a couple of ugly ones, it will loosen everything up.”

“But you have to work hard at going to the net to make those kinds of goals happen.”

We’ll see if the Avalanche can start turning things around tonight, as they face the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.